Tony DeFrancesco finds the fulfillment of lifelong dream

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Tony DeFrancesco’s first game as a major league manager “didn’t work out the way I wanted,” he said Sunday afternoon.

But after more than 500 games as a catcher in the minor leagues and more than 2,300 games as a minor league manager, an afternoon’s disappointment can scarcely hold a candle to the fulfillment, even if it’s only for the rest of this season, of a lifetime dream.

DeFrancesco said he “almost fell to the floor” when Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow called him Saturday night to offer him the job as interim manager after the dismissal of Brad Mills.

And, no, he wasn’t floored by the daunting task of taking over the most wretched aggregation in Major League Baseball. He was, and is, grateful for the opportunity.

“My first major league manager’s game unfortunately didn’t work out the way i wanted,” he said. “But it was an honor. It was an honor to put on the Astros uniform, to be part of the organization. I’m excited to get it going.”

For most Astros fans and baseball observers, DeFrancesco, 49, is an overnight sensation. Until late Saturday, he was the manager of the Astros’ Class AAA farm club in Oklahoma City, his sixth stop in a career that began in 1994. Then he got Luhnow’s call in Round Rock, where the RedHawks played Saturday night, and caught a morning flight to Houston.

“It’s been a blur,” he said. “(But) when the game started, I was in my own place right there. That’s where I kind of belong. I’m a baseball grunt, you know. This is my life.”

DeFrancesco was in position to take the Astros job because of his devotion to life in uniform. After years in the Oakland A’s organization, much of that as a successful manager at Class AAA Sacramento with a year as a coach in the major leagues, he turned down an offer to work as a roving catching and managerial instructor for the Oakland organization and instead signed on to manage at Oklahoma City.

“I talked with my family, and I said that I have a passion for managing,” he said. “Even as a major league coach, it wasn’t the same as when you’re in charge. You don’t feel that adrenaline rush during the game.”

Back in the majorsSunday at Minute Maid Park, he said, the rush was back.

“It was fun to look around and see the fans rooting, even though we were down,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll bring people back and enjoy the winning tradition that has been in Houston for years.”

A native of Suffern, N.Y., on the New York-New Jersey state line northwest of New York City, where his high school teammate was former A’s Rookie of the Year Walt Weiss, DeFrancesco went on to become an All-America catcher at Seton Hall, where he had an inadvertent impact on Astros history: When he was selected by the Red Sox in the ninth round of the 1984 draft, Seton Hall coaches moved a freshman named Craig Biggio to catcher to take over.

He played nine seasons with nine minor league teams in the Red Sox and Reds organizations before retiring after the 1992 season. After three seasons as an instructor and coach, he got his first manager’s job in 1994 and spent nine seasons with four teams, including four years (1999-2002) with Midland in the Texas League, before taking over the Sacramento River Cats, Oakland’s top farm team, in 2003.

At Sacramento, DeFrancesco managed the River Cats to six division titles, four Pacific Coast League championships and two Class AAA championships. He was the Sporting News’ minor league manager of the year in 2003, and was named the manager on the River Cats all-decade team.

He said he learned early the importance of a happy clubhouse.

“I think that’s what keeps this clubhouse fresh every day — a lot of jokes, a lot of cards, a lot of backgammon,” he told the Sacramento Bee in 2009. “Unity in there is what keeps this thing going.

Early lessons
“When I was a younger manager I was probably too firm. I had a lot of rules. The players didn’t respond well. They were so uptight, afraid to make a mistake.”

In the offseason, when he wasn’t teaching young players, he worked as a substitute teacher in Arizona, where his family lives. He gave up the teaching gig a few years ago, but his devotion to instruction was sufficiently strong

to take him away from the Oakland organization to keep managing at Oklahoma City when the RedHawks became the top Astros affiliate in 2011.

By the time he met Luhnow, in his first year as Astros general manager, he had smoothed off the veneer of anxiety from his early years.

“Typically in a Triple-A clubhouse you have people excited to be there, but more people who don’t want to be there because they want to be here. The chemistry is mixed,” Luhnow said. “I was impressed with the culture in the Oklahoma City clubhouse. Everybody was positive, working on things. They weren’t unhappy they were there. They were taking advantage of every at-bat and every inning pitched, and a lot of that has to do with Tony’s leadership style and the tone he set.”

And now he has his opportunity, although his chances of keeping the job remain in the air. Luhnow noted that DeFrancesco will remain with the organization in 2013, so his time as interim manager might wind up being as a placeholder while Luhnow and owner Jim Crane look for a new skipper with more major league experience.

But he has a chance to sell himself to Luhnow and Crane, to the players and to a skeptical, dwindling fan base; only 14,923 were on hand for Sunday’s 8-1 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

“I’ve waited a long to come to this level, to be on a major league staff as a manager,” he said. “I know it’s hard for the fans to understand the process we’re going through, but today’s the first day. I’m going to tell the players it’s a new beginning. From now until the end of the season, we’re going to see how good they can be.

Ongoing struggle“I know they’re young. There’s going to be mistakes. There’s going to be inconsistencies. But the bottom line is that we’re going to go out there and play as hard as we can and it’s going to be better. There’s going to be a commitment to excellence. I want to be the guy who changes the environment around here. I grew up a winner. I’ve had success at the minor leagues, and it’s time to translate it to the major league level.”